---
title: "Themes"
description: "Nine built-ins, your own YAML themes, iTerm2 imports, and a colour editor."
---

**Settings → Appearance → Theme** — or **Change Theme…** in the command
palette — opens the theme picker.

## Built in

| Light | Dark |
|---|---|
| Light *(default)* · One Light · Catppuccin Latte · Rosé Pine Dawn | Dark · Dracula · Harbor · One Dark Pro · Rosé Pine |

<Frame caption="Placeholder — screenshot: the theme picker with light and dark sections">
  <img src="/images/placeholder.svg" alt="The tty7 theme picker" />
</Frame>

## Following the system

Turn on **Sync with system** and pick a theme for each appearance. tty7 follows
the OS live — no restart, no reload.

```json
{
  "theme_follow_system": true,
  "theme_preset_light": "one_light",
  "theme_preset_dark": "dracula"
}
```

## Legible bright colours

Some palettes put a bright ANSI colour so close to their own background that it
disappears. **Legible bright colors** (on by default) brightens or darkens those
just enough to be readable. Turn it off with `theme_legible_palette: false` if
you want the palette exactly as authored.

## Transparency

**Settings → Appearance → Transparency**:

| | |
|---|---|
| **Opacity** | 0.2–1.0, applied to every theme. *Follow theme* hands the decision back to the theme's own `opacity`. |
| **Blur** | Blurs whatever is behind a translucent window (macOS). |
| **Background material** | Windows only: *Auto*, *Blur*, *Mica*, *Mica Alt*, *Acrylic*, *Off*. Only the presets your Windows build supports are listed. |

## Writing your own

**Open themes folder** in Settings takes you to:

| | |
|---|---|
| macOS / Linux | `~/.config/tty7/themes/` |
| Windows | `%APPDATA%\tty7\themes\` |

Drop a `.yaml` file in and it appears in the picker. The file name is the
theme's id; `name` is what is shown.

```yaml
name: "Midnight"
background: "#0d1117"
foreground: "#c9d1d9"
accent: "#3fdd8c"
cursor: "#3fdd8c"
selection: "#264f78"
opacity: 0.95
blur: true
ansi:
  normal:  ["#484f58", "#ff7b72", "#3fb950", "#d29922", "#58a6ff", "#bc8cff", "#39c5cf", "#b1bac4"]
  bright:  ["#6e7681", "#ffa198", "#56d364", "#e3b341", "#79c0ff", "#d2a8ff", "#56d4dd", "#f0f6fc"]
```

Everything except `background`, `foreground`, `accent`, and `ansi` is optional.

### Gradients and images

`background` also takes two colours:

```yaml
background: { top: "#0d1117", bottom: "#161b22" }
# or
background: { left: "#0d1117", right: "#161b22" }
```

And a theme can carry an image behind the terminal:

```yaml
background_image:
  path: "/Users/me/Pictures/wall.jpg"
  opacity: 0.25
```

The Settings panel has a picker for both, so you rarely have to write this by
hand.

## Editing in the app

Select a built-in theme and hit **Duplicate to edit** — built-ins are read-only,
so the editor works on your copy. From there you get every colour, including the
sixteen ANSI slots, plus the background image controls. Changes are written back
to your themes folder as YAML.

## Importing from iTerm2

Drop an `.itermcolors` file into the themes folder and tty7 reads it directly —
no conversion step.

<Note>
  A theme file tty7 could not load is listed in Settings under **Not loaded from
  the themes folder**, with the reason, rather than silently ignored.
</Note>